2011 Architecture and the City Festival: San Francisco

The 2011 Architecture and the City Festival, being held from September 1st to September 30th, is a month long celebration featuring over 40 behind the scenes tours, workshops, exhibitions, lectures, dining adventures, films and more that explore the best of San Francisco architecture and design. Hosted by AIA San Francisco, the 2011 festival theme is ‘Architecture of Consequence.’ By selecting this theme, the festival hopes to demonstrate how progressive design and creative problem solving can address society’s current challenges and lead to a more sustainable future. More information on the event after the break.

Mayor’s Forum: What is Your Vision for San Francisco’s Built Environment?August 29, 5:30 – 7:30 pm, The City Club of San Francisco, 155 Sansome Street, San Francisco Free. Registration Required at their website here. Should the city be denser? Is the city building enough affordable housing? How can the city balance desires for preservation with changing urban needs? Join San Francisco Chronicle Urban Design Critic John King and leading candidates for Mayor of San Francisco in a roundtable discussion of their views of the City’s design future.

Architecture of Consequence: San FranciscoAugust 31–October 21, Opening Reception: August 31, 6:00 – 8:00 pm, AIA San Francisco | Center for Architecture + Design Gallery, 130 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco In an effort to advance critical dialogue with the international architectural community on the transformative power of architecture and progressive design, we are delighted to announce a unique collaboration with the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI). Initially conceived by the NAI in 2009, Architecture of Consequence: Dutch Designs on the Future exhibition has been presented in multiple locations around the world. This latest incarnation, in San Francisco, is the first to add content to the exhibition, with the inclusion of new work by four Bay Area architecture firms. In doing so we hope to advance this innovative agenda and reveal how architects can practice in new ways that reinvigorate the field and reposition architects at the vanguard of social change. From modest interventions to utopian visions the firms participating in this ground-breaking exhibition express an admirable confidence in our shared future. The result is a unique portfolio of progressive design strategies and demonstrable evidence that architects hold the creative vision needed to reshape our future. This exhibit includes work by the following firms: Van Bergen Kolpa Architecten, Rotterdam – Park Supermarket OMA/AMO (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), Rotterdam – Zeekracht ZUS , Rotterdam – Re-Public / The Dépendence 2012 Architecten, Rotterdam – Villa Welpeloo envelope Architecture+Design, Oakland – Proxy IwamotoScott Architecture, San Francisco – HYDRO-NET: City of the Future SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLC), San Francisco – Parkmerced Fletcher Studio: Landscape Architecture + Urban Design, San Francisco – Beta-Bridge